Dennis Kucinich on the Issues

(Editor's Note: Kucinich dropped his bid for the Democratic nomination on Jan. 25, 2008, changing his focus to run for re-election to his Ohio congressional seat. He did so after having been excluded from televised Democratic debates in Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina.)

Abortion
He was traditionally a supporter of pro-life, but switched from pro-life position to pro-choice in 2002 based upon knowledge of women's health risks. He states that pro-choice underscores women's rights to privacy and equality. He says that providing proper medical care and education to decrease the need for abortion is more important than how abortion as a law is decided. ... more.

Environment and Energy
He is committed to rejoining the U.S. with the Kyoto Treaty and employing its recommendations throughout the country. His proposed plan to end the country's energy dependence, the Works Green Administration (WGA) includes retro-fitting homes with renewable energy technology through wind and solar power all the while providing new jobs to strengthen the economy. After addressing global warming Kucinich would focus on the country's water shortage. Under Kucinich he would put all water in the public domain, make drinking water publicly owned and practice conservation through sustainable agriculture and encouraging plant-based diets ... more.

Health Care
Under a Dennis Kucinich administration, universal, single-payer, not-for-profit health care would be available. His plan is to get rid of for-profit health insurance companies that make up 31 percent of health care spending, which would save the industry 365 billion dollars. This savings would be enough to cover everyone in the country according to Kucinich ... more.

Immigration
Immigrants already in the U.S. will be provided with a path toward citizenship. Kucinich believes that the implementation of NAFTA fueled the rush of immigrants and plans to cancel both NAFTA and WTO and return to trade based worker's rights. He voted against the fence in 2006 and believes that strengthening U.S.'s relationship with Mexico and creating a trade agreement with Mexico to ensure that their workers have a "decent" wage is key to national immigration reform ... more.

Iraq
He is the only Democrat running for president who actually voted against the war in Iraq. Moving toward an end to the war in Iraq can only be fulfilled through "strength in peace." He proposes an international call to peace keepers and negotiators to move into the region as troops leave the region. He believes that voting to fund the troops is voting to prolong the war and that U.S. troops can't begin leaving until that voting ends.... more.

Taxes
Kucinich promises that as a Democratic president, he will not raise taxes. He believes that the current tax structure redistributes the country’s wealth back up to the wealthy. In order to end this upward redistribution, Kucinich has laid out tax reform that includes retaining the child tax credit but extending it to lower income families, retaining the elimination of the marriage penalty and ceasing the tax cuts that Bush endowed to the Americans in the upper income-earning brackets. Kucinich would then have those leftover funds from the elimination of wealthy-American tax cuts and put them in a fund that would pay for universal college education. By stopping the flow of funds outside of America, Kucinich will lower the country’s deficit. This plan includes cutting America’s participation in NAFTA and the WTO and ending the war in Iraq. ... more

Yucca Mountain
Dennis Kucinich not only opposes making Yucca Mountain the nation’s nuclear waste storage site, he opposes all forms of nuclear energy and if elected president would phase out nuclear power plants. Kucinich stated on his Web site that nuclear energy poses more of a threat to the U.S. than nuclear weapons. Since being elected into the House of Representatives in 1997, Kucinich has never voted in favor of Yucca Mountain proposals. While on the city council in Ohio and as a mayor of Cleveland, Kucinich railed against the building of both nuclear power plants and nuclear waste storage sites in the state. Kucinich is instead in favor of renewable energy sources that will not pollute or cause harm to the environment or people. ... more